Invasion of the Body Snatchers

1978's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS truly is one of the best remakes ever.   It is one of the few to actually surpass the original, in this case a 1956 film directed by Don Siegel and starring Kevin McCarthy.  It was one of several "red scare" thrillers of its era, though others saw it is a metaphor for McCarthyism.  Screenwriter W.D. Richter nicely updated the scenario to the 1970s and Phillip Kaufman announced himself as a front line director with this movie, which in fact features the director and star of the original in small but significant cameos.

The story is similar - folks start acting strange, or at least, not like their old selves.  Not an ounce of emotion.  Family and friends are concerned, but then later quite content with the situation.  Elizabeth (Brooke Adams) notices that, overnight, her boyfriend has grown cold and suddenly indifferent to his beloved basketball games on television.   Her friend and colleague Matthew (Donald Sutherland) is approached by his dry cleaner, saying is wife isn't right.   At the beginning of the film, we see some jelly-like organisms making their way through deep space toward San Francisco, infusing themselves into flowers no one can identify.  An invasion.  One in which human's minds and bodies are absorbed into pods that will grow into replicas.

Matthew's friend David (Leonard Nimoy), a pop culture shrink, thinks everyone is just stressed out and paranoid, merely looking at their loved ones through filters that may reveal something about them.  Matthew's other friend Jack (Jeff Goldblum), a struggling writer, thinks David is full of it, and wants to know why a body that looks like him is in the spa he and his wife Nancy (Veronica Cartwright) owns.  Soon, more of these bodies will turn up, especially in what I consider one of the creepiest and most frightening scenes I've witnessed in a movie, where Matthew falls asleep on a rooftop.  Expert work perfectly lensed by Michael Chapman.

Kaufman achieves a palpable atmosphere of dread from start to finish that never gives the viewer a moment of repose, even during the humorous bits.  Denny Zeitlin's (otherwise best known as a jazz pianist) score aids immeasurably. Your interpretation of Richter's take may lead you to indictments of '70s self help fads, or post-'60s malaise/materialism.  Or maybe even the rise of increased dependence on prescription drugs like Valium.  Whatever your bent, INVASION OF THE BODY SNTACHERS is eerie as hell, a real model for modern horror.   The cast is fabulous, and the final scene is one for the Hall of Fame, of any genre.